AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A light pendant. A witch gave it to me to help curb the shadow magic.”
I remove my hand. “Did it work?”
She touches the necklace, her fingers grazing right where mine had been mere moments ago. “Yes.” Her gaze drifts to mine, then she abruptly looks away and clears her throat. “Where were you last night? I was expecting you to come back, and you didn’t.”
She looks almost ashamed of asking me, so I don’t hesitate to respond. “I went to my pub. Spent a few hours there until closing, then met with my cleaners, gave them tasks, then walked around for about four hours while I figured out just how I was going to convince you to never leave.”
She stares at me, green eyes boring into my soul as they always do. “You want me here?”
“How many times do I have to spell it out for you?”
“I—”
Angry that she still doesn’t believe me, I shake my head and change the subject—for now. “What will you do?”
“Huh?”
“If he succeeded and took your power, what will you do?”
“Well, he couldn’t have taken all of it; you’re proof of that. But, I suppose I’ll just go back to my normal life. Back before I met the Astors preferably.”
“I thought you and Delaney were friends?”
“Ever since you and Elijah carried a dying Rainey into my clinic, my entire life has been turned upside down. I never wanted to be involved in anything to this measure,” she admits. “I was happy before.”
“You were alone before.” Other than our monthly blood exchanges, or if I had any medical need to see her, Bronywyn and I rarely communicated. She preferred it that way, being barely acquaintances and definitely nothing more.
As I’ve already said, I never want to go back to that time. This Bronywyn, the woman who puts the light in my life, the breath in my chest—she’s the only fucking thing that makes this miserable immortality worth a damn.
“I was.” She shifts her gaze back to me. “But life was simple. Easy. Routine. Now, I have no damn clue what it is I’m doing with myself every time I wake up.”
“You seemed to have a pretty good idea when you were making yourself a target for every supernatural council there is.”
“I was going to make the city safe. For good.”
“And how are you doing that in a different way than Rainey and Delaney have been trying?”
At the mention of the Astor sisters, Bronywyn looks away and begins fiddling with the bag in her hands. “That mission to take over the council, it had an expiration date, Tarnley. As soon as it was done, I could have delivered the proverbial keys to the damn city to you guys. The bounty hunters, the enforcers, they all would have worked for you, and there would never be another Heather or another Lucy.”
“You were going to dismantle the council and rebuild it with the same people you claim to no longer care for?” Her intentions—even as pure as they may have been—are naïve, and I think she knows that on some level. She has to know it.
“Even though none of you were willing to accept me for what I was and could do, I still don’t want to see any of you dead. The dark magic though, it had other plans.”
“You speak as if it’s separate from you.”
“It is—was.” She shuts her eyes tightly. “I’ve never felt anything like it, Tarnley. The darkness was so damn alluring. I wanted it, the power it promised, and it wanted every single one of you dead.”
“Because we’re your last line to your soul,” I reply, as I recall the way Rainey nearly lost herself to the dark souls inhabiting her. Their power had corrupted her in a way that very nearly destroyed her.
It took Aoife—a half-fae and Elijah’s ex-fiancé—to rip the souls from her and set her free. And she was only able to do that because she’d sacrificed herself.
“Possibly. Either way, what you all did to me—that will never fucking happen again.”
“I already told you it wouldn’t. But you can’t blame us for wanting to save you, Bronywyn. You know good and damn well you would have done the same.”
“I—possibly.”
“Not possibly. When Delaney lost her shit, where were you? Right there, searching for her. Trying to find any lead so you could kick her ass back into shape.”
